I don't know if everyone remembers how disappointed I was with the K4S when I got it. I had to exchange it because the background was really grey. The background on the replacement was a little lighter but the dingy grey cast was always there. I finally found a tolerance for it after finding a custom font that was dark enough for me to read comfortably. I had many people come to me with the same screen problem.

The K4S screens seemed very inconsistent between units. Mine which I received the same day you got your first one had a screen that was better than the K3 I had at the time. A really good screen, though nothing like what you describe the new K4B as having. Perhaps Amazon was able to pressure eInk into using better quality control this time around. I hope so. I cannot wait for my Paperwhite to arrive now that I've heard how terrific the K4B is!

The K4S screens seemed very inconsistent between units. Mine which I received the same day you got your first one had a screen that was better than the K3 I had at the time. A really good screen, though nothing like what you describe the new K4B as having. Perhaps Amazon was able to pressure eInk into using better quality control this time around. I hope so. I cannot wait for my Paperwhite to arrive now that I've heard how terrific the K4B is!

Quality control was probably the biggest issue with last years Kindles. I mean with the Silver Kindles they just for first time cut alot of corners. I think they realized now they can't sacrifice quality if they want to keep their customers happy.

They seem to have found a medium now between the two.

Now if only they give us back the ability to turn WiFi off from inside a book or home page I would be ecstatic.

I ordered two black K4 (one for each of my parents for Xmas) and just received them.
The black bezel is very attractive. The displays, which are good, are for my eyesight the same as my grey K4 display, which I always thought was better or the same as my K3.

Is this just an impression, or are the new black ones a tad lighter (weight) than the grey ones ?

I ordered two (here in the UK it's the £69 Kindle) and they're due tomorrow. Excited now! After 4 years and 4 devices I'm jumping ship from Sony - I finally got fed up with managing books and 'last read' positions manually across my work reader, my home reader and my phone. Looking forward to that whispersync goodness...

Andrew

Congratulations!

You may know this already (or it may not matter to you), but if you convert your existing e-books to .mobi and e-mail them to your Kindle, they will be stored in your Amazon library *and* whispersync will work with these books (which Amazon calls "personal documents.")

This feature has been around for about a year; originally whispersync only worked with books you bought from Amazon. But you do have to e-mail them; sideloading with the cable won't activate whispersync.

Hard to compare. There are lighting (color) variations from the center to the edges of the picture.

Exactly, but I don't have a working camera so I used my phone. There is a big bay window on the right side too. This pic was made as an answer to Zeebra, not to prove my point since I really believe that the grey K4 Displays did vary quite a lot from one device to another.